Business Solutions Vol 5 Issue 1

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Irish Government not budging from original National Broadband plan route The Department of Communications said last night that the intervention area in the National Broadband Plan remains at 750,000 premises, despite Eir’s plans to connect 300,000 homes to 1Gbps broadband. The issue of broadband in Ireland is a highly emotive one and it became an election issue in 2016 as many people who are unable to receive adequate broadband feel they are missing out on the social and economic opportunities provided by it. Before Christmas, the Government began the procurement process for the ?275m EUbacked plan that aims to deliver at least 30Mbps broadband to 1.8m people, or 38pc of the population not served with broadband of 21st-century quality, by 2020. Around the same time, Eir revealed its plans to connect 300,000 homes in broadband-deprived rural areas to its latest 1Gbps service with the first 100,000 home to be connnected by March 2017. Such a move would require the Government to amend the rollout plan as EU state aid cannot be directed towards areas supplied by a private sector provider. Broadband intervention area won’t be altered… just yet But it appears the Department of Communications is sticking to its original plan as drawn up in 2015. Five companies had applied for the first stage of the formal procurement process by the deadline of 12 noon yesterday (31 March). The department said that certain criteria would need to be met and a binding agreement signed before premises can be excluded from the broadband intervention area. The department said that so far it has assessed the commercial plans of six operators in 2015 in respect of its criteria and it has found no reason to alter its plans. “The department wishes to place on record that, to date, no company has satisfied all of the relevant criteria and signed a Commitment Agreement in respect of any proposed commercial plans,” the Department of Communications stated last night. “The High-Speed Broadband Map 2020, therefore, remains as it was when published in 2015, and the intervention area, therefore, also remains at more than 750,000 premises. “The Department is monitoring existing commercial rollout The Irish Government said it is sticking to its multi-million euro EU-backed plan to connect up to 38pc of the population to high speed broadband. plans to ensure that all of the 1.6m premises, which commercial operators indicated they would complete by end 2016, will have access to high-speed broadband of at least 30mbps by end 2016.” The Department of Communications said that while it does not plan to change the intervention area during the procurement process, it reserves the right to do so. “In the event that the department becomes aware of an increase or decrease in planned private sector investment, the department may review such changes and if it considers it appropriate, it may update the High-Speed Broadband Map 2020 and the intervention area. Any review and change to the intervention area will take account of public procurement rules as well as State Aid rules and guidelines. “In this way, the separtment aims to ensure that all commercial plans are fully assessed and validated, and that the Government’s commitment to delivering high-speed broadband to every premises in Ireland is fully realised.” 32 VOL 5 ISSUE 1
Fastest-ever data transfer clocked at incredible 1.125Tbps Imagine being able to download all of Game of Thrones in one second? Well, researchers have achieved a data transfer speed that could do just that. The fastest-ever data transfer record, achieved by a team from University College London (UCL), clocked in at a blistering 1.125Tbps, which, the team is quick to point out, is 50,000- times faster than the average UK household speed of 24Mbps. With its research published in Scientific Reports, the team undertook the challenge by building an entirely new optical system to transmit the data, as well as developing its own coding techniques to fine-tune the transfer speed to the ultrafast speed it achieved. The optical system contains 15 channels, each of which transmits at a different wavelength and is then combined and sent to a single optical receiver for detection. In doing this, the researchers say that it turns it into a ‘superchannel’, widely believed to be the future of high-capacity communication, but it is years from being commercially available. Looking for a longdistance relationship The project is part of a UK-funded programme called UNLOC, which gave the team access to state-of-the-art lab facilities. Explaining the super-channel concept further, lead researcher on the project, Dr Robert Maher, said: “Superchannels are becoming increasingly important for core optical communications systems, which transfer bulk data flows between large cities, countries or even continents. “However, using a single receiver varies the levels of performance of each optical sub-channel, so we had to finely optimise both the modulation format and code rate for each optical channel individually to maximise the net information data rate. This ultimately resulted in us achieving the greatest information rate ever recorded using a single receiver.” Having only achieved this speed in a lab, the researchers will now aim to expand their concept to long-distance transmissions up to thousands of kilometres in distance, which typically leads to data loss. A booming time for Cork “ Communications infrastructure and the internet economy as a whole are developing fast in Cork,” said Barry Rhodes, INEX’s chief executive, when commenting on the news. “The arrival of the Hibernia Express subsea fibre cable, and the other international subsea fibre cables that are expected, has created a momentum in the city that the INEX Cork internet exchange will help to further stimulate. INEX celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2016 and we are delighted to be marking this milestone with the launch of INEX Cork.” The news today follows the announcement by Interxion that the group is to open its third data centre in Dublin to better cope with demand, with the centre to be built in Grange Castle <strong>Business</strong> Park. Short Stories New INEX internet exchange to open in Cork to boost region Ireland’s Internet Neutral Exchange Association (INEX) is to open its first regional internet exchange point in Cork to help facilitate faster internet in the region. Founded in 1996, INEX has been providing IP peering facilities to more than 100 members, with six data centres currently based in the Dublin region. This, however, will be the association’s first opening outside of the capital as it looks to expand its national capacity following a year in which its centres reached peak traffic levels of 110Gbps, with a total usage of 200 petabytes of data for 2015. To be designated INEX Cork, the new venture will be located in the CIX data centre located in Holyhill and is expected to begin operations by the beginning of Q2 this year. As part of its remit, INEX Cork will also be operated as a standalone exchange. Banking is undergoing its most disruptive era ever, with every aspect of its traditional business model under attack from outside forces – This is bad news for frontline staff Up to 30pc of employee numbers at traditional banks could go over the next decade, with growing automation rendering huge swathes of staff roles outdated. That’s according to Citi’s report into digital disruption in the banking world, with it claiming a fintech-driven automation ‘tipping point’ is coming in the immediate future. Saying branches are soon to become about “advisory and consultation” rather than transaction, the loading of fintech investment towards the end-user experience means plenty of lower-end positions are on the ropes. “We believe that there could be another 30pc reduction in staff during 2015-2025, shifting from the recent 2pc per year decline to 3pc per year, mainly from retail banking automation,” the report reads. Fintech feeding an Uber moment It’s worse news for countries like Greece and Ireland, where the financial crises were felt most, with the decline topping out at 5pc per year according to Citi’s estimates. Fintech investment by financial institutions has risen from $1.8bn at the start of the decade to $19bn now, with 70pc of it focused on the customer experience. Given that this experience used to be ‘in-store’, you can see where the warning signs are. Calling the impending tipping point “banking’s Uber moment”, Citi claims it will specifically see a huge shift towards mobile banking, with it becoming customers’ primary mode of interaction with their banks. “Branches will be only one of the distribution channels. They will still play an important, albeit diminishing, role,” reads the report. Last December, the European research institute BearingPoint found that the vast majority (90pc) of banks’ new digitalisation prioritisation was needed, however, at that point just 17pc felt up to the task. Citi’s findings show that that low base is poised to skyrocket. VOL 5 ISSUE 1
Page 1 and 2: Vol 5 Issue 1 ISO27001 Event Guide
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Page 18 and 19: EXHIBITOR DIRECTORY SPONSORED BY Ar
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Business Solutions Vol 5 Issue 1

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